K-Drama Music Festival II

Better known as the K-Pop singer J, Jung was born in Seoul, but moved with her family to San Francisco when she was less than a year old. Now, she finds herself back in Seoul pursuing a singing career that includes doing hit songs from serial dramas.

Saturday night, she will be part of the second K-Drama Music Festival at the Waikiki Shell, singing "Perhaps Love" from the drama "Palace" in a duet with Kim Dong Wook. (Kim sings under the moniker Howl and has had more than his fair share of hits taken from serial drama soundtracks.) Popular Korean entertainers Tak Jae Hoon and Jung Jae Wook round out the festival lineup.

J finds strength in her family, which includes musicians. "My father's a musician, a guitarist and vocalist, and my father's youngest sister, my aunt, was also a singer," she said by phone Monday from her home in Seoul. "My father was heavily influenced by Western music, and we moved to America because he wanted to give his children a better educational opportunity, which we're totally grateful for."

The family later moved to the Washington, D.C., area, specifically Springfield, Va. It was there that her latent singing talent was coaxed out of her by her mother.

"My story is not like Beyoncé's, who knew she was a singer when she was 9. Not me. When I was 9, even though I loved to sing, I thought of it only as my little way out, a kind of private escapism.

"I was a homebody, so much so that my mom was worried for me," Jung said. "One day, she asked me the most important question of my life, namely, 'What makes you happy?' Without hesitation, I honestly told her I wanted to sing.

"Up until that moment, my parents were not your typical Korean parents, never demanding of me. I don't even have a piano background. But once I told my mother I wanted to become a singer, it's like she metamorphosed into this whole new person. So much so that, seeing her as a 16-year-old, it was kind of scary.

"But she wasn't at all like a stage mother. What she did for me was totally out of love, not to build some inner diva. In fact, I'm proud to say that I'm standing on the shoulders of my mom. Combine that with my father just wanting me to be happy, and voila! Their love and determination helped me become what I am today."

COURTESY TOM MOFFATT PRODUCTIONS
Kim Dong Wook (aka Howl).

JUNG'S FIRST public performance was a memorable one.

"When I was a sophomore in high school, my brother signed me up for the school's talent show. I decided I would sing Whitney Houston's 'Greatest Love of All,' which isn't the easiest song to do. But I had so much stage fright beforehand that my friend Monique first prayed with me and then literally pushed me on stage.

"I know this sounds corny, but as soon as I grabbed the mic and heard my voice, all my shyness flew out the window and I felt that this was where I should be. It was an out-of-body experience. I knew I was able to perform."

Even though Jung didn't win the contest, she didn't give up. "I just wanted to keep practicing. I didn't know I had this competitive drive in me."

That drive would result in a move to Seoul and a career journey that was a bit bumpy in its early stages.

"When I went back when I was 19, it was hard for me to adjust," she said. For three months she lived with an aunt, a singer. "It was not at all the dream I expected. I had a hard time speaking the language and it was a complete culture shock."

Her first Korean album, released two years later, "was hell on earth," she said. "I went back and forth from hating it to loving it. I was being promoted as a dance artist, complete with a hip-hop stage routine.

"And the album bombed, which, in hindsight, I'm glad happened because in Korea, once you find success with a certain kind of music, the rest of your career is kept that way."

Her second album did better, "because I was left alone to do what I wanted to do in the first place."

While Jung has carved a niche for herself in the Asian market as a soulful R&B-type singer (her influences are Sade, Mary J. Blige and Aaliyah), she's also proud of her recent release, a contemporary Christian album, "In My Lifetime."

Now an 11-year vet in the biz, Jung, who'll turn 30 in May, is always glad to return to the United States to perform. "Singing the songs from the TV dramas in this theme concert is a good way to share the Korean culture with others. And any chance to go to the States for my fellow Korean Americans is always a good opportunity."